Sermon delivered on 2nd
Sunday of Epiphany, the 17th January 2016 by Bishop Nicholas JG.
Sykes in the congregation of St. Alban's Church of England, George
Town, Cayman Islands.

Scriptures: Isaiah 62:1-5 1 Corinthians 12:1-11 S. John 2:1-11

S. John 2:11 “This, the first of His signs, Jesus did at Cana in
Galilee, and manifested His glory; and His disciples believed in
Him.”

The season of Epiphany brings to our attention the various ways in
which the Son of God was revealed, and on this second Sunday of the
Epiphany season we read of Jesus making wine out of ordinary water,
thus showing the glory of Jesus as the sovereign Creator and Ruler of
the material universe and also as the merciful God who provides
abundantly for His people's needs. At the same time St. John shows
us that the full glory to be manifested is to be in an hour that had
not yet come, an hour that Jesus Himself in a conversation with His
Mother calls “My hour.” The sign manifesting His glory therefore
pointed forward to a fuller manifestation of His glory.

Jesus’ presence at a marriage and St. John’s
characterisation of the event that then took place as Jesus’
first public sign can be taken to elevate marriage from being one
sort of human arrangement to an institution that is divinely and
uniquely approved. The Scriptural revelation as a whole confirms
this, and those who in our time or any other time seek to make
marriage out to be just one form of civil arrangement or partnership
are out of tune with what has been revealed to be God’s intention.
Recalling the Old Testament lesson, we will remember that it
used the thought of the rejoicing of a bridegroom over his bride to
show us God rejoicing over His people. God promised to change their
state of being cast off and forsaken to a state of being delighted in
by Him. His delight in them was compared to the union of the
returned inhabitants with their beloved homeland. Moreover, the Lord
will delight in His people the way that a bridegroom rejoices over
His bride.

So God’s gift to us of marriage is to show us something of His own
joy. Jesus often taught about God’s Kingdom using the idea of a
marriage-feast. This takes forward our thought from the lesson from
Isaiah today about God’s delight in the restoration of His people.
God’s Kingdom is the way He rules us and we are taught that to be
ruled by God is the most joyful thing of all. God’s intention is to
rejoice over us and all His people, and for us to submit to His rule
is the most joyful thing for us to do. The restoration of the
deserted land to its people after their return is described by the
prophet as a union between land and people having those qualities of
marriage that are always longed for, namely delight and permanence.
“For as a young man marries a young woman, so shall your sons marry
you, and as the bridegroom rejoices over the bride, so shall your God
rejoice over you.” The wonderful mystery is that it is God Himself
who extends a gracious relationship to us not merely of philanthropy,
but of the ardent love of a bridegroom rejoicing over his bride.

All this certainly does not necessarily imply
that for an unmarried person to know God’s joy, he or she should
be married. The New Testament, especially, shows a high regard for
celibacy and the unmarried state, which have a very special place in
God’s purpose. For all Jesus’ teaching about the Kingdom of God
in terms of marriage, and for all St. Paul’s teaching about the
relationship between Christ and His Church in terms of a husband and
a wife, neither were married, and this was not seen by them, and is
not seen by Christians, as something defective or missing in their
lives. In connection with this we may apply St. Paul’s words in our
second lesson today from 1 Corinthians. “Now there are varieties of
gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of service, but
the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the
same God who empowers them all in everyone.” In a Christian
community or society we are not equal, in the sense of being
identical or having identical gifts. Our “equality”, such as the
equality that exists in Christ between a man and a woman, must not
be an equality of identity, but should become formed into an equality
of complementarity. This is something that is of the very highest
importance in the “quarrel” - the distinction in point of view -
that we in Christ are called to maintain with the world today. I
suppose that much of the anti-discrimination legislation, with which
the western world is entangling itself more and more, starts out with
premises that are confused. The truth is that it is as unjust not to
discriminate between things that are fundamentally different as it is
to discriminate between things that are fundamentally the same. Our
Christian sources show that great joy and fulfilment is to be found
in relationships that complement one another, as can be found within
marriages, or within a secure society, or even between God and His
people. Those relationships, however, never show an identity between
whatever gifts the various parties bring to the relationship, nor an
identity between whatever benefits each party derives from it. As St.
Paul says in our second lesson 1 Cor 12, there are varieties
of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties
of service, but the same Lord. He gives a list of gifts, which I do
not believe he means to be exhaustive, starting from the utterance of
wisdom and ending with the gift of various types of tongues and their
interpretation, and at the end of the chapter, he counsels his
hearers earnestly to “desire the higher gifts”. The gifts are not
of identical importance, but the different gifts are supposed to
complement one another in their exercise, and by complementarity
achieve an equality of standing. Pope John Paul II taught that
Creation ‘in our likeness and image’
(Gen 1:26) suggests that the communion of human persons literally
embodies the dynamic relationships of the Divine Persons within the
Blessed Trinity. These considerations
will build human communion, while the attempt to enforce identical
privileges acts to destroy human communion. What people persecuted by
IS are going through now is not the same as what others experience;
and what the families are going through who have lost their homes or
properties to abnormal flooding is also different from others’
experience; but while there is no possibility of equalising the
experiences of the lives of different families and nations, God’s
grace enables the bringing about of human communion, the
establishment of complementarity between, say, the rescuer and the
rescued, and hence a different sort of equality.

At the marriage in Cana of Galilee Jesus made the very best sort of
wine out of very ordinary water, and that was called a sign of His
glory. When Jesus turned water into wine at this marriage feast some
people began to see His glory, and His friends and disciples truly
believed that Jesus really was the Provider they were looking for.
In the course of this manifestation Jesus saved the bride and
bridegroom from the great embarrassment in front of their guests, of
having the wine run out. He intended that the joy of the bride and
bridegroom should not be spoilt. At the same time He must have given
those who believed in Him great joy, because of what He did,
revealing His own glory. So the glory that Jesus here reveals is
two-fold. He reveals His rule, because He shows His power to effect
the material transformation, and He reveals the character of His rule
as one of joyful abundance. God’s Kingdom is the way He rules us
and we are taught that whatever life hands out to us, to be ruled by
God is the most joyful thing of all. Simply put, when the heavenly
Groom rejoices over us as a groom rejoices over his bride he rules us
joyfully, and for us to submit to His rule is the most joyful thing
for us to do. Of course even joyful marriages are not beds of roses
so to speak, and neither is the joyful rule of God. It involves the
cross and following Christ, to the death if necessary, but even in
such a case the wondrous rule of Christ is so great that we know
there is a resurrection. One of the greatest signs to the world now
of the glory of Christ therefore is the confidence and joy in His
rule displayed by His people when they are suffering. In the extreme
case of that suffering, “the blood of the martyrs is the seed of
the Church.” Let us today, therefore, knowing His wondrous rule,
maintain our quarrel that is Christ’s quarrel with the world, that
is to say, maintain our distinct point of view and manner of life as
belonging to Christ, with abundant confidence and great joy.